Miscellaneous

Just a few odds and ends...


New baseboards for the kitchen (the old baseboards, painted white);


New house numbers, made from tiles we bought in Morocco;

and


Our Summer 2007 garden! We planted 6 types of tomatoes, zucchini, 3 types of squash, chard, and pumpkins. Everything grew well, except the pumpkins. And the spaghetti squash grew a little too well. We had something like 25 of them... and I do not care for spaghetti squash.

New Dog Containment System

When we bought our house, it came complete with one very rusty chainlink fence, surrounding the entire property. Chainlink fences are (1) ugly, and (2) flexible, and therefore not entirely dog-proof. Particularly not dog-proof when said dog can tell that your neighbor has a newly fertilized garden, and uses every opportunity to go roll in that garden and come back smelling like manure. Mmmm.

So, for a while, we used the redneck way of securing the fence -- piling up rocks wherever the dog escaped.

But then summer came, and we started seeing our neighbors again after the long, rainy winter. Seriously, you never see your neighbors over the winter. It's too wet, too cold.

Our neighbors to the north decided to organize a joint fence venture. We wanted a new fence, they wanted a fence to keep their kids in the yard, and the neighbors next to them wanted a bit of privacy, since their windows are approximately 1 foot apart.

So, after soliciting many bids, we settled on Alki Fence -- since they were ridiculous amounts cheaper than any other fence company, and they could get to work right away.

However, we had to take down the old fence before the new one could be built. Doing that required cutting the chainlink off the poles, and then sawing (with a Saws-All and a metal blade) down the metal fence posts.


One roll of rusted chainlink, and Evan contemplating the best way to remove the fence posts.


Sawing down a fence post.


Pile of fence posts and poles at the end of the day.

So, one morning, the fence crew shows up, and quickly, with a power fence-post hole digger, digs all the fence post holes in approximately 5 minutes. A couple of guys follow them, dumping bags of concrete in the holes. Another guy follows them, filling the holes with water and mixing up the concrete. Finally, two guys stick the new fence posts in the holes and make sure they're nice and straight.

Then they go away for a few days.

Our backyard looks like a crucifixion scene for a while, what with all the very tall wooden poles.

Once the concrete set, the fence crew came back. And within a couple of hours - and this amazed me - we had a fence. It took absolutely no time at all to install a fence around 2 quite large yards.



Fence on the north side of the yard.


Fence on the south side of the yard.


Front gate (with my car in the background!)


Front gate, from the front yard.

As you can see, we decided not to fence in the entire yard. I have a strongly held conviction that fencing in the entire yard really cuts you off from your neighborhood, and did not want that again. Also, I didn't want Copper to be able to stand by the sidewalk and harass passers-by.

P.S. - we still have some of the chainlink up in the front yard. We haven't figured out the best way to remove it, since an evergreen bush has grown up around it. A task for this summer!

Putting the Bathroom Back Together, Part 3

Last step in Phase 1 of the Bathroom Renovation was to install the sink and the cabinets.

We bought our sink from Second Use, the used building supply store. We thought we wanted a pedestal sink, but as it turned out, our pipes weren't aligned correctly -- meaning, a pedestal sink (which fits OVER the pipes) would not have lined up with our mirror. So, scrapping that (and returning Sink #1), we went with a wall-mounted sink.

Basically, a wall-mounted sink hooks onto a bracket that has been screwed securely to a stud and/or cross piece behind the drywall. As you'll remember from an early bathroom post, we had to tear apart our wall to install the cross piece. Mudded and painted up, it's like the bracket was always meant to be there.


Bracket in place, aligned with the mirror (but NOT with the pipes).

You slip your sink on top of that (there are little tabs to hold it in place), slap some caulk around where the sink meets the wall, hook up the pipes, and voila! Sink. It's actually really, really easy.

Beforehand, I put a new faucet mechanism in the sink, which was also straightforward: buy a faucet, stick it in the right holes, seal things up with a little plumbers' putty, and voila! Drain.

Next, we installed the cabinets, which bought from Ikea (of course). We decided to go with two tall cabinets on either side of the sink -- each one having an upper and lower cabinet, with an open space in the middle (our "countertop"). Just like our kitchen cabinets, we had to assemble them ourselves, but a box is pretty easy to construct.


Cabinet 1 in place, cabinet 2 almost in place.

We didn't have a whole lot of selection when it came to cabinet doors, but we settled on a particular style we both liked. It's basically a light wood frame, with a translucent plastic insert -- so you can kinda see through them, but not really.


Cabinet door.


New light fixture.

Finally, we installed new door pulls. Now, look at this attention to detail!

and

See that!? The spirals on the door pulls match the spirals on the shower curtain! I'm so crafty like that...

And last but not least... new, white floorboards.



And Phase 1 of the Bathroom Renovation is complete.

Quick blog tip

You'll notice that, in our newest entries, the pictures are a little on the small side. If you click on them, you'll be transported to larger versions of these pictures. This will be the case, going forward.

Putting the Bathroom Back Together, Part 2

Generally, one paints before installing a tile floor, but, as mentioned in the previous post, we really needed our toilet back, so we decided to just deal with painting after the tile had been laid.

What better color to paint a bathroom than Pepto-Bismol pink?!


A rare picture of me, painting the bathroom.


Paint supplies on top of a carefully plastic drop clothed floor.

Now, if you've been paying attention, you know that we originally painted the bathroom gray. We had no choice - the bright blue it had been painted when we moved in was not going to work. We decided to keep the ceiling gray, but painted the walls the new color.


Pink bathroom! From the hallway.


Close up.

You'll notice that we just let paint get all over the tile work. See, those tiles are plastic and really chinzy. The plan is to get rid of them during Phase 2 of the Bathroom Remodel (perhaps coming Summer 2008!), when we redo the tub area.

Ok.

Now I hope you don't think I would *actually* be down with a pink bathroom...

Pink is really the color of the primer that Home Depot sells you, as a base coat for...

a RED bathroom!! Woooo! Brothel-icious! I'd been gunning to paint something in the house red, and the bathroom was the winner.



And I mean BRIGHT lipstick red. Rock. Is that a hip bathroom or what?

After about 20 gazillion coats, we had a bright red bathroom. Upon later research, I learned that a dark gray primer would've cut it down to only about 10 gazillion coats of red paint, but whatever.

Putting the Bathroom Back Together, Part 1

Miss us? So, after several reminders from several people - and one person in particular, *coughcough* - I've decided to make time to get this blog up-to-date. It's no coincidence that the last post was right before I stopped working from home. What? I'm busy! I have a job and a life!

So, no, our bathroom is not still stripped to the drywall and subfloor. Being our only bathroom, we were forced to put it back together, pretty much immediately.

So, while Evan and his dad were ripping the bathroom apart, I sat outside on a beautiful July day, and figured out our new flooring.

We didn't really require much discussion when picking out a new floor for the bathroom. We were both like, "yep, hex tiles," and I suggested maybe a cool pattern. We decided that white tiles, with black tiles placed seemingly randomly (but not really!), would look really nice.

One drawback - hex tile sheets don't really come pre-made with cool patterns, such as ours. Instead, you get to carefully cut out individual tiles from one sheet, and replace them with tiles cut from other sheets!


A white sheet of hex tiles in the process of being altered to our pattern. You can see all the penciled-in x's on tiles that are to be removed. Note my attention to detail! Never does the pattern get screwed up!


Pile o' misfit hex tiles.

HOURS later, after destroying the bathroom, carefully measuring the room, x'ing and cutting tiles, and laying the sheets out just so, the floor begins to take shape:


Not tiling the backyard, though that grass is awfully ugly...


In the bathroom, Evan lays down the cement board to which the tiles will be cemented.


Sheets of tile stacked in the order they need to be installed. Points to me for not screwing up the pattern here either! Note, no black tiles - they are in a bucket, waiting to be carefully placed in their holes, once the larger sheets are cemented down.

And then a bunch of stuff happens. I don't have pictures, because tiling a floor requires two people to move very quickly. No time to whip out the camera!

To recap:
We mixed tiling cement in a bucket. Using a cement trowel, we glooped the cement on the floor (technical term, there), spread it out, and then dragged the jagged edge of the trowel through the cement to create ridges. These ridges grip the tiles better (don't ask me why). Then, we'd take a sheet of tiles from the correct pile, carefully lay it on the cement so as to avoid cement squishing up and over the tile, and then pop the black tiles in place. And repeat.

Once everything was down, and dried, we mixed the grout up, and using a different, rubber, trowel, spread the grout over the tiles, pushing it into the spaces between the tiles.

Then, we deviated from procedure -- you're supposed to wait, like, 3 days before doing anything to the floor, such as sealing the grout or putting heavy things on the floor. But, by this time, it's Monday morning and we haven't had a toilet since early Saturday morning. Thankfully, we have really generous neighbors who let us use theirs all weekend, but we really needed our own at this point.

So, we jump out of bed early Monday and install a toilet! Toilet installation goes a lot faster than you'd think. Maybe half an hour?

So, you install the bracket, and the wax ring and screws, and carefully seat the bottom of the toilet on top of all of that.


Evan, seating the toilet. Look at the floor!

Then, you screw the bottom of the toilet to the bracket (NOT to the floor), and screw on the tank. After that, you hook up the water valves, turn on the water, and voila! Tank fills with water, and you can pee again.


Evan, hooking up the water to the toilet.

Other things I don't have pictures of: finished floor, fully installed toilet, the toilet seat (which you have to buy separately), the grout on the floor getting all dirty because we put things in and used the bathroom PRIOR to sealing the grout...

Yeah... white grout? Not a good call. We did seal the floor when it was time, but by then, the grout had already slightly discolored. Something to take care of in the future.

Destruction

Our big project at the end of June/beginning of July was Phase 1 of the bathroom remodel.

Phase 1 was defined as everything in the bathroom except the tub area (which will be Phase 2, and is not yet calendared).

But first, we had to destroy. And take care of preliminary matters.

The first step was to pry out the old pink sink, and remove the old sink cabinet (which looked like some monkey with a hammer had put it together...).


Evan, prying.


Copper, wondering where his favorite bathroom sink went...

We decided that we both really liked the look of wall-mounted sinks, and found the perfect sink at Second Use, the used building supply store just down the hill from us. However, to install a wall-mount, we first needed to reinforce the wall by... cutting a hole in the drywall, nailing a crossbeam between the studs, and patching the hole with the removed piece of drywall and lots and lots of drywall mud.


Drywall mud smeared on the wall.

The next step was to take out the old pink toilet, which was original to the house (or close to it, as it's something of a mystery to us why the house was built in 1952 and the toilet was stamped 1957 -- did they really need a new toilet that soon?).

Upon moving the toilet, we found a nice hole. Caused by water and insect damage. Basically, it's a miracle that no one had fallen through the floor while on the commode.


The drain pipe for the toilet, surrounded by brittle flooring.

Evan's dad came over to help us repair the floor, because we were at a loss as far as what exactly to do. It involved ripping out the old flooring and about 3 feet of the car decking, and replacing it with new.


Fixing a hole.

And then we threw everything in the backyard.


The old flooring, which we took out in chunks, figuring it contained asbestos.


The old toilet, which was later donated to Second Use to become part of an art project.


The old sink, which later found its way to the landfill.

And that was Evening 1 and Day 1 of the bathroom renovation.

Flowers

So, we haven't posted in a while...

Here are some pictures of flowers that I took in June.



The rhododendron in the front yard.


Close-up of the rhodie... the flowers look like big puffs of cotton candy. I love them.


The dogwood and lilac trees, in the front yard (growing out of the evergreen shrubbery).


One of the azaleas.

New Front Door

Our new green front door. It really pops, with the new color. I am pleased with my color choice.

Yucca Destruction

Foes have been vanquished! Or, at least 3 of them have.

I'm talking about the hideous yucca plants that adorn our yard. 3 of the 6 are now gone, gone, gone.


Yucca remains strewn across the yard.


Evan, dressed to kill.


Assessing the big baddie in the vegetable garden.


Hacking apart the big baddie.


The root ball!

So, we managed to dig up one of the three yucca root balls. It was huuuge! I'm trying to think of something to compare it to -- maybe a keg? Huge, dense, heavy. We had to dig a giant pit around it just to get it out.

[side note: we are planning to use the giant pit to pit roast hams for the 4th of July!]

Also, these three yuccas? Yielded 500 pounds of yard waste. Oof.

Curb Appeal, Part 2

So, now that the front walk was down, we could concentrate on the front gardens.

We were left with a 24 ft foundation garden on one side of the front porch, filled with ratty old St. John's Wort. On the other side of the front porch, we had a triangle-shaped garden, filled with an ugly evergreen bush (see the previous post for a picture) and a bunch of Hen and Chicks -- small, cactus-like plants that grow like the Dickens.

The weekend after doing the front path, we started on those two gardens.

My job was to pull up all the St. John's Wort. Not an easy task -- that stuff has an extensive root system. You'd pull on a patch of it. and end up with roots 3-4 feet long, extending down the garden to other stalks of the plant. Crazy. After I finished that, I straightened the front line of the flower bed, since it was about 8 inches wider by the porch than by the corner of the house.

Evan's job was to get rid of the hideous evergreen bush. Wielding a chain saw, he slowly but surely whittled it down well below the ground level. By then, we could determine that it in fact had giant roots that weren't going anywhere. So Evan chopped it down as far as he could, and piled dirt on top of it to bury it. It shouldn't return. And he got rid of all the Hen and Chicks. They're probably still growing in our compost pile, hardy little buggers.

Evan then took a field trip to the gravel yard, to pick up some topsoil/compost mix, which we spread over both gardens. Evan then turned the soil, in order to mix in the topsoil/compost with the old dirt. This also serves to aerate the soil, making it easier for plants to grow.

We also spread the soil over the bare parts of the lawn, turning the soil over. Over this, I sprinkled grass seed.

I'll take a break here to tell you how much Copper loved the new topsoil/compost mix. The first thing he did when we let him into the yard was roll in it. And eat it. And roll in it some more. He was also a big fan of the grass seed, which he kept leaping into the air to grab as I sprinkled it.

Fast forward to yesterday.

Our new plants arrived! We had ordered 28 different plants from a mail-order nursery called Spring Hill. They had a big sale going on, so we ordered their Complete Foundation Sun Garden -- on sale for about $85, including shipping. You can see the list, and pictures of each flower variety, by clicking the last link. One word: hydrangeas! My favorite!

And then fast forward to today.

When I planted all the plants, except the Magnolia (we're not sure where to put it yet).

Can you see them?


Garden to the left of the front porch.


Garden to the right of the front porch.


A close-up of one of my hydrangea bushes! A tiny baby!